Bailey Campaign Story

America’s 1,200 community
colleges are the major gateway to higher education for low-income students and
students of color. Indeed, there are more low-income African American
and Hispanic students at Bronx Community College alone than in the entire Ivy
League.

“If you’re going
to increase the population that has some college, it isn’t going to be among
upper middle-class white people,” says Thomas Bailey, TC’s George & Abby
O’Neill Professor of Economics and Education. “Community colleges will have to
play a central role.”

Bailey, the
founding director of both TC’s Community College Research Center (CCRC), has
been perhaps the single most influential voice over the past 20 years in
focusing attention on the potential of community colleges to serve as an engine
of upward mobility for the students they serve and of economic growth for the
country.

Bailey, a
Harvard- and MIT-educated economist, and his colleagues at CCRC, were among the
first to ask why more than 60 percent of community college students need
remedial coursework, and why these courses fail to engage them; why so many
students drop out of community colleges before graduating; and why these
institutions often fail to meet regional employment demands.

More specifically, CCRC has:

Emerged as a national authority on dual
enrollment programs, in which high school students take college classes in
order to improve their chances of completing a two- or four-year degree.

Provided research that supported the
creation of the state of Washington’s Integrated Basic Education and Skills
Training (I-BEST) program, which prepares low-skilled adults for high-demand
jobs. I-BEST is now being replicated in other states.

Completed a study for the Virginia
Community College System that documented the low success rates of remedial
programs.

Received $5 million from the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation to research which community college teaching and
support strategies work best to improve student completion rates. CCRC is
expected to issue a report of its findings in 2012.

In 2006, Bailey
and CCRC received $10 million from the U.S. Department of Education to
establish the National Center for postsecondary Research, which focuses on
measuring the effectiveness of programs designed to help students transition to
college and master basic skills needed to advance to a degree. And last year,
Bailey was tapped to chair a national committee on measures of student success
at two year institutions.

“When the CCRC
was started by Tom over 10 years ago, community colleges were basically in the
backwoods of any kind of research,” says James Jacobs, President of Macomb
Community College. “Over the years, he has really built a research agenda that
is increasingly the agenda for all of us in community colleges.”

Bailey Campaign Story

America’s 1,200 community
colleges are the major gateway to higher education for low-income students and
students of color. Indeed, there are more low-income African American
and Hispanic students at Bronx Community College alone than in the entire Ivy
League.

“If you’re going
to increase the population that has some college, it isn’t going to be among
upper middle-class white people,” says Thomas Bailey, TC’s George & Abby
O’Neill Professor of Economics and Education. “Community colleges will have to
play a central role.”

Bailey, the
founding director of both TC’s Community College Research Center (CCRC), has
been perhaps the single most influential voice over the past 20 years in
focusing attention on the potential of community colleges to serve as an engine
of upward mobility for the students they serve and of economic growth for the
country.

Bailey, a
Harvard- and MIT-educated economist, and his colleagues at CCRC, were among the
first to ask why more than 60 percent of community college students need
remedial coursework, and why these courses fail to engage them; why so many
students drop out of community colleges before graduating; and why these
institutions often fail to meet regional employment demands.

More specifically, CCRC has:

Emerged as a national authority on dual
enrollment programs, in which high school students take college classes in
order to improve their chances of completing a two- or four-year degree.

Provided research that supported the
creation of the state of Washington’s Integrated Basic Education and Skills
Training (I-BEST) program, which prepares low-skilled adults for high-demand
jobs. I-BEST is now being replicated in other states.

Completed a study for the Virginia
Community College System that documented the low success rates of remedial
programs.

Received $5 million from the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation to research which community college teaching and
support strategies work best to improve student completion rates. CCRC is
expected to issue a report of its findings in 2012.

In 2006, Bailey
and CCRC received $10 million from the U.S. Department of Education to
establish the National Center for postsecondary Research, which focuses on
measuring the effectiveness of programs designed to help students transition to
college and master basic skills needed to advance to a degree. And last year,
Bailey was tapped to chair a national committee on measures of student success
at two year institutions.

“When the CCRC
was started by Tom over 10 years ago, community colleges were basically in the
backwoods of any kind of research,” says James Jacobs, President of Macomb
Community College. “Over the years, he has really built a research agenda that
is increasingly the agenda for all of us in community colleges.”